Tigers for Tomorrow

On Sunday, we had plans to go to the lake for the day, but Joel's parents told us they were coming home early because of the rain and the lake was so down that they weren't sure they were going to put the boat in, so we decided to figure out something else to do for the day. We knew we had to come up with something good because we had told Hudson we were going to the lake and knew he would not be very happy when he found out we weren't going!

One of the things we had been wanting to do for a while now was to go to Tigers for Tomorrow up near Gadsden. It is basically a place that raises tigers and runs solely off of donations. I think that LSU got their last tiger from this place. We thought Hudson might really like to see some tigers! We checked the radar and while there was rain from the tropical storm definitely on the way, we thought we might could beat it since we were going north. We didn't mind getting a little wet anyway!

It was a lot farther to get to than we thought, but we finally made it, and man, it was really neat! I was a little worried though when my ticket to get in said, "Enter at your own risk." There were times when I didn't feel the safest, but I'm sure it was fine. We sure were able to get up and close to the tigers though! They had a ton of them. You are not allowed to take any kind of camera in there, but I did sneak in some camera phone pictures.

The tigers were huge too! Since it was a wet and cool day, they were all up and moving around so it was really neat. This one below was playing with a ball and running all over his cage. He even went and jumped in his pool of water. Hudson loved it!

We were surprised when we got there because it was definitely not all tigers. You walk in and there is an area with a camel and a zebra (strange combination!) and then a petting zoo area with a bunch of goats, peacocks, chickens, roosters, and other animals that I'm sure I'm forgetting about. When you passed the petting zoo and went in the actual preserve area, there were cages of wolves, lions, black bears, grizzly bears, mountain lions, panthers, etc. It was a lot more than you can see at the zoo! That was a very pleasant surprise!

The mountain lions LOVED Hudson (and not in the way that is warm and fuzzy!). I think they thought Hudson was something they could take care of pretty easily if you know what I mean! I got really nervous with the one below. He would crouch down at Hudson and act like he was going to charge him. And then, Joel picked Hudson and put him up on the fence, and the mountain lion jumped up too. We did this about 5 times before I couldn't stand it anymore!

We talked to one of the workers there who said that the majority of all the animals there were born in captivity, most of which were former pets of people. Can you imagine having a lion or a tiger as a pet??? People are nuts!

I would highly recommend going to Tigers for Tomorrow! It was a really neat place and something different to do. We ended the morning with lunch at the Top of the River in Gadsden--yummy catfish! We were glad that we got in some outside time on Sunday because once the rain moved in, it was about the most boring end to Labor Day weekend ever! I'm not sure I can take any more kid movies! Ha! School starts back tomorrow for Mr. Hudson after a week and a couple of days off. He met his teachers this morning and they seem to be great! I think he's going to have a fun year.